


Stargazing

by TheOvidians



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Homesickness, M/M, mock fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:00:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7420930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOvidians/pseuds/TheOvidians
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Distance can mean a sense of security, but it can also be something painful. It can be an actual measure or just a feeling.<br/>All we can do, is try to overcome the distance, each in our own way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stargazing

Keith knew he shouldn't underestimate his opponents as he looked left to Shiro and right to Lance. Both of them wielded exercise weapons, swords and shields, like himself and observed each other with serious, concentrated eyes.  
Who would make the first move?  
It was Lance, much to their predicament, who betrayed his own plan by smiling mischievously before he set on for an quick attack against Shiro. The captain of the team blocked with ease and created some forced distance between them by kicking the attacker into his stomach. While Lance tumbled backwards and coughed, Keith used this opportunity to test a parade on Shiro, that he had practiced for the last two weeks. However, he reacted to his attempts immediately.  
He was led more by sensation, which he had gained during his almost forgotten times in a ruthless arena, instead of actually seeing the attack coming.  
As a result, Keith was thrown into the very same corner, where Lance still struggled to not throw up at any second.  
"That was very good, Keith," commented Shiro, who remained up to this day undefeated in their training room. This session had been no different.  
It was frustrating.  
So instead of accepting his compliment, Keith stood up with a heartfelt jump and retook his fighting posture.  
"One more time," he demanded. He couldn't hide the furious, rashly tone in his voice. Shiro shrugged as an answer and neatly put away his training arsenal.  
"Being ambitious is admirable, but you can't fight, when you are driven by anger or you will lose your focus and become vulnerable."  
Deep down Keith knew, that his words were an undeniable truth and yet, it merely fueled the fire inside of him. He wanted to prove him wrong. His pride loudly demanded to settle this uneven score right now.  
But before he could even brace himself, a sword flew past his right side towards Shiro. Even the captain hadn’t been able to predict this bizarre attack and he could barely block the weapon. It had caught him off guard enough, that he had to step back, lost his balance and fell.  
"Ha!" shouted Lance behind him. "Didn't see that coming did ya?"  
Keith's and Shiro's faces mirrored their honest disbelief, as they looked at their co-pilot, who was busy performing what appeared to be a victory dance.  
"Did you" began Shiro after halfway stomaching what had happened just now "threw your sword at me?"  
Lance stopped dancing the letters of his own name and wore a bright smirk as he answered:  
"You always say, that any means to win a fight are allowed at the battlefield and who would expect an attack like this?"  
Keith shook his head. He had to admit that NO ONE could foresee Lance's strategy. That doesn't mean, it was an ingenious move.  
"You are aware that you give up your weapon, which will probably land in the hands of the enemy, you idiot," he noted and Shiro nodded in agreement.  
"Hey, at least my attack overthrew the Champion for the first time," Lance returned.  
"Don't call me that."  
Shiro obviously disliked this title, thought his disciplinary nature forbid him to become truly upset. In fact, he just seemed tired.  
He got up and went on to the exit.  
"Need to check on Pidge's research before calling it a day. You two don't stay behind for too long," he said before leaving them alone.  
Keith walked over to Lance's sword, picked it up and examined it, while his thoughts drifted to their mock fight, analyzing and evaluating every move of himself and his sparing partners. He did so every day and despite all his effort, he couldn't BEGIN to compete with Shiro.  
A swift pat, which he felt on his left shoulder brought him back to the present.  
"Dude, if you continue to stare at my sword like this it might grow legs and run away."  
Lance stood beside him, signaling with his other hand, that he wanted his weapon back. Despite his joking tone, Keith noticed in his eyes a growing worry.  
"Sorry," he said briefly and handed him the sword. Lance looked at it and back to his opposite.  
"Do you have a sec?"  
"For what?" he asked, getting the hunch, that he was planning something suspiciously, something Keith would certainly not agree on.  
Lance put his weapon away, like Shiro before him, then shoved his hands in the pockets of his sweater and hinted at a shrug as an answer. When he decided to explain it to Keith, he was already on his way to exit the room.  
"Just stargazing, man. But it's up to you, just thought I wouldn't mind it too much if ya come along."  
The pilot of the red lion had given up some time ago to try to understand Lance's motives and reasons or even ask him about any more details, they would only make equally limited sense. At least, it didn't sound dangerous or dumb like most of the other stuff that usually came out from his mouth.  
But the main reason he eventually decided to accept Lance's offer was his curiosity. Though, this was something he would never openly admit.  
So, he simply, swiftly tidied up the training room and followed him. Lance didn't even bother to hide his satisfied grin, as Keith was silently tagging along.

The two ended up in one of the most sacred parts of the castle, the newly obtained Bolmera crystal was strongly pulsating on the other side of the room and made up most of its interior. His irritation grew.  
Maybe this was, after all, a typical Lance-plan, that could easily end in a catastrophe.  
"I am not an expert in astrology, but don't we need to go to the deck of the ship to see the stars outside?" he questioned his co-pilot with an obvious mocking undertone.  
Lance, surprisingly enough, ignored him and went to what seemed to be a control panel nearby the crystal and started tipping in commands.  
"See that round podium in middle of the room, you genius? Go there, lie down and just enjoy the show."  
With the last words he turned around and pointed to the described place. Keith had some comebacks on his tongue, but he withheld them, for now. As he did like Lance had told him, a grand transparent map unfolded in front of the crystal.  
A map with countless stars, dozen galaxies and points to places they couldn't even begin to imagine.  
Lance pushed the whole image upwards, so it covered the ceiling and expanded directly before Keith's eyes. He barely noticed, when Lance joined and laid down beside him.  
"Pretty impressive, huh? Coran showed to me how I could program it, so it would move slowly from our location," he pointed at a symbol, that hovered in the nothingness of space "towards our home galaxy."  
Indeed, the grand hologram was slowly moving, allowing to take in the variety of constellations and shapes of planets, while also constantly bringing new sides of this almost endless map into their sight.  
"I have to say, that's pretty cool," he admitted and realized, that besides the galaxy there wasn't much else on his mind. He had forgotten about his frustration of his defeat against Shiro, who had such a high level of skill and abilities, that he would never be able catch up to him.  
Keith reached out with one hand, towards the projection of a dazzling galaxy, which was slowly moving past them. It was just as far away as his goals.  
The next moment a darker skinned hand appeared next to his own.  
"Ha," Lance shouted triumphantly "my hand is a bit bigger than yours and my fingers a tad longer!"  
It sounded like this was his biggest achievement. With his current stormy state of mind, Keith couldn't let this slide so easily.  
He sat up and hold his hand now towards him as an wordless invitation to the challenge. Lance's face was first marked by mild astonishment, which soon turned in a determined look. He also got up, took Keith's hand and hold it directly against his.  
Two heartbeats, where nothing happened.  
He noticed, that Lance's hand was very cold, in comparison to his, which was always kind of warm. It was a calming feeling, unusual, yet comforting. The galaxy moved on above them.  
Finally, Lance pierced through the moment, like he did during their training, unexpectedly and with a whole wave of emotions in his gestures and words.  
"Come on, Keith. You cheated just now, there is no way our hands have suddenly equal height!"  
He continued to protest and let himself fall backwards with his arms crossed behind his head.  
Keith couldn't resist a mild smile, not only because this whole conversation was ridiculous, but also because his opposite was right for once. He indeed did move his hand a little bit upwards, enough to make a difference when they compared the tips of their fingers and yet, so slightly Lance wouldn't notice the change.  
"What? Are you smiling down at me with pity?"  
Lance was obviously bumped, that the victory he had believed was ensured, had been snatched away from him.  
Keith figured it would be the best to change the subject.  
"Do you often come down here?"  
"Sometimes, when I can't sleep or when I'm bored or upset or..."  
Lance realized how he moved into quite personal territory with his own talk. He started anew:  
"At first, the sheer magnitude of this map, really freaked me out. Especially when I searched for earth. It seemed, like I found myself in a completely different reality."  
His voice became more firm and calmer, it was a rare sight of his.  
"But after a while, I caught myself returning to the projection, even though it's the very place, where I almost got blasted into pieces, and studied the hologram by searching for our position and accordingly scaled its distance to our home. And then it hit me. It's a good thing we are so far away from Earth, because like this I can be sure everyone is still safe."  
Keith was taken aback by these words. He looked beside him. Lance didn't even seem to notice his gaze. His eyes were focused on the hologram and they were filled with an iron will and a strongly flickering glimmer of hope. They were almost even more fascinating than the map of countless galaxies.  
"So now the projection calms me down whenever I check how many millions of miles we are apart."  
He now understood, why this otherwise annoying goofball had brought him here. He had noticed, how upset Keith had been after their mock fight. He felt grateful and he hold on to this very rare sensation, as certain as, he knew he would never let his companion know of this.  
However, Lance's right hand laid strangely enough simply between both of them and even more of an coincidence, so did Keith's left one. At first, only the backs of their hands touched each other.  
"Distance sure is a strange thing, huh," Keith said after some time of comfortable silence.  
“Sure is,” he agreed. Lance seemed closer now, even though he hadn’t moved all this time.

In the end, they didn't know how much time had passed like this. The only things, that had progressed were the planets above the ceiling and their fingers, who slowly, barely had been intertwined, until their hands tightly hold on to each other.


End file.
